They have rum in Las Vegas! (In case you were wondering). They also have pretty much anything else you could ever want and I ate and drank most of it. This was a great trip, with my mom, where we spent time at the pool, on the Strip, at the Neon Museum, on Fremont Street and even at Circus Circus (for old times’ sake). It was good fun.

The Funky Monkey at the Pool Cafe at Bellagio.

First of all, it’s not super easy to find different brands of rum in Las Vegas. Places will generally have Bacardi and often Myers, and you can usually find some Mount Gay Eclipse (yay!) and, of course, Captain Morgan. Whenever I saw something else interesting, I made sure I ordered it. It all started off on Friday morning at Bellagio’s Pool Cafe, where I ate my breakfast al fresco before heading over a few feet to sun myself and assume my favorite position in the pool (standing, holding my cocktail). The cocktail of choice for pool time was the Funky Monkey. This is a blended and frozen cocktail consisting of Mount Gay Eclipse Rum, Cruzan Banana Rum, Banana Puree and coconut water. It’s blended with ice but is more slushy than frozen – it was easy to drink with a straw. It was garnished with toasted coconut and little banana chips. Overall, it was very delicious but, as with all frozen cocktails, I was pretty full after just one, especially right after breakfast.

I switched to Champagne with Campari for the rest of the day while gambling. It’s important to look mature and professional at the craps table so I advise against frozen cocktails there. If you have one and are below the age of 40, you’ll probably get carded, especially if it’s in a souvenir cup. Frozen cocktails (like the pina colada) are completely acceptable when playing video poker or slots, however, or when hanging out in the sports book.

My custom rum drink with Appleton Reserve at Julian Serrano.

The next rum drink I tried was at Julian Serrano at Aria. We had a really lovely dinner here on Friday night, where I was able to partake of their Agua Serrano cocktail and also a custom rum mix-up that I requested from bartender extraordinaire, Premo. I honestly can’t recall exactly what was in the Agua Serrano but I know it had rum and I am going to check on it next weekend and report back. My custom cocktail was the basic Trinidad punch made with Appleton Reserve rum, simple syrup, lime juice, bitters and club soda. It was delightful, as always, and I did enjoy the Appleton in it. After these I switched to coffee with Bailey’s and Frangelico and whipped cream for the night, pretty much just because I could. We also proceeded from Aria to Monte Carlo where I caught the Clay Guida and Gray Maynard fight. I needed Guida to win it somehow in order to win my four-fight parlay and $700. That didn’t happen. But, I did win my pool at Kountermove.com so that almost made up for it!

Mom and me and a pina colada.

On Saturday morning, we were up pretty early to take The Deuce bus to Fremont Street and head to the Neon Museum from there. We grabbed some breakfast at the little restaurant in the Four Queens where we had a very reasonable breakfast of eggs and ham steak (mom) and an omelet with lots of toppings and a bloody Mary (me). I love the the downtown casinos and their cheap food. And, my bloody Mary was only $3.50 (of course, they’re free when you’re gambling). We headed to the Neon Museum (which was amazing and will have its own post tomorrow) and then back to Fremont Street to check everything out. I got mom signed up for a few players clubs and she did all the things required to get lots of free stuff (match play, free ace on blackjack, free deck of cards, free photos with $1 Million at Binions). I convinced mom to use her match play to try out the $5 craps table. This was her first time playing craps and she happened to be the shooter so you know this turned out well. She turned her $10 bet into $110 (after dealer tips) and then moved on to blackjack where she got her first card free ace and landed a black jack. This was all at the Four Queens so that is now her favorite casino.

The Myers pina colada at the Bellagio sports book.

Throughout all this, we drank free pina coladas. Well, I had to stop after two but mom kept on for a few more. There were actually pretty good and every place seems to serve them with whipped cream on top – very rich. After fun at Binions, the Four Queens, the Golden Nugget and The Plaza, we jumped back on the bus and didn’t stop until we got to Circus Circus. Mom had another pina colada at Circus Circus and we both took advantage of the players club sign-up offer of $45 in chips for $30. They’re no-value promo chips that can’t be cashed in and must be played but I did really well with my stack at the craps table. Mom came by a bit later to try her luck and it didn’t go well.

We headed back to the Bellagio and didn’t drink too much more (I had my coffee with Frangelico) and then the next morning ventured to The Venetian for breakfast. I had a bloody Mary with breakfast, which was delicious and comes with pickled asparagus. Mom was in a bad mood, however, and also ate too much, so we headed back to the Bellagio where she regrouped in the room and I hit the craps table before taking to the sports book to watch the Italy vs. England Euro 2012 soccer game. I drank quite a bit as I sat at the bar playing video poker and watching the game. It was really fun and I had Champagne with Campari before switching to a pina colada (when Mom showed up). The bartender advised that his pina colada is better when made with Myer’s Dark rum and I agreed to test it out. I got a little drunk because it was quite tasty.

Champagne with Campari at The Ballagio sports book.

After soccer, we headed to the pool for a bit, where I got to try another Funky Monkey and converse with the bartender as he made it. He said I could make it at home. I watched and I agree with him. My mom liked my drink but didn’t want one right then so she waited and attempted to order a frozen banana daiquiri while playing video poker. She pretty much got a pina colada (but it was tasty).

We went to The Mirage that night to eat dinner at BLT Burger. My falafel burger was good but what was even better was the absolutely perfect vegetable salad they have there. It is so delicious and comes with avocado, lettuce, halved cherry tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, red onions and feta. I highly recommend it. After dinner, we had a drink at the outdoor lounge Rhumbar where (duh) they have a lot of rum. They had an extensive rum cocktail list and a whole bunch of rums on the menu, too. I chose to have a Zombie cocktail, which they make with Ron Zacapa rum. It was very good, if a little sweet, but I think that’s the nature of the drink. It was a perfect cocktail to sip while watching the Mirage volcano show.

The Zombie with Ron Zacapa at Rhumbar at The Mirage.

And that was pretty much it for rum drinking last weekend. I’m sure I’ll step it up this weekend since I’ll be home and mixing my own stuff up. It should be an excellent pool weekend and I’ll be sure to report back. Cheers!

A Dark & Stormy made with my second batch of ginger beer and Gosling’s Black Seal rum.

This was a great weekend for cocktails and I have several exciting highlights to report. They involve rum and they were all extremely pleasant.

First things first: I opened my second batch of homemade ginger beer on Friday night while I was watching UFC on FX (which was a great night of fights, BTW). This batch of ginger beer was a lot like the first (it used the same basic recipe) but I changed it up this time by adding more ginger (I used 14 ounces), more sugar (I used a full cup this time) and the juice of two lemons. The pressure inside the bottle this time was much higher than the last batch so I had to open it extra slowly. It was completely worth the extra time (and ingredients) because this batch was delicious. It was really full of ginger flavor and had lots of zing. It was good. The best thing about a strong ginger beer is that it goes perfectly with rum for a Dark & Stormy. I actually strayed away from the Gosling’s Black Seal Rum this time and opted for Mount Gay Eclipse. It was a good choice. The ginger beer held up all weekend as I forced everyone I encountered to taste it. Rest assured that I did make sure that the ginger beer went well with Gosling’s Black Seal. I’m sipping one of those right now. Tasty stuff.

Even more of a highlight than my own modest accomplishment was the Brinley’s Shipwreck Gold Coconut rum that I finally got to try. This rum is clear and comes in a very elegant bottle. I had to special order at Mac’s and wait for a week but it was well worth the wait. I’d heard really good things about this one so I was sort of worried that it wouldn’t live up to my expectations but I wanted to try it, nonetheless. Holy crap. This stuff is outstanding. When I opened it, I smelled it and it smelled like a coconut. Not like a fake coconut or suntan lotion but like I coconut I would like to attack and eat. It smelled so good that I wanted to try it straight so I poured a little glass and shared it with my friend, Stephanie. It was so smooth and delicious – definitely a good sipper. We both wanted to just drink it on ice but I decided I should add club soda so that I wouldn’t drink too much too fast. Once I added club soda, I also wanted to add a little falernum (the stuff I made), and that made it just pop. It seemed to just enhance the coconut and make everything more complex. Stephanie drank hers with just club soda and she really enjoyed it. too. I highly recommend Brinley’s Coconut Rum. It would make a delicious drink with pineapple juice and I plan to try it with lime and bitters in a Trinidad Punch just to see how it is. I think with the coconut flavor, you could skip most or all of the simple syrup. So, it’s a diet drink, really. I will only share this rum with people I like a lot.

Brinley also makes a coffee rum (which I have in my possession but haven’t sampled yet), a mango rum (which I want to try), a lime rum (which I also want to try) and a spiced rum (which I have tried and it’s really good and I’ll write about it soon).

My other exciting rum encounter this weekend was at Campagnolo restaurant here in Midtown Atlanta. They have some interesting drinks on their menu, including one with “dark rum” that I felt the need to try. It’s called a “Pantheon” and the menu says it has dark rum, mint, Amaro Averna, yellow chartreuse, lime and tonic. When I asked the bartender what it was like, he said it was basically “an Italian mojito”. I tried it. It was rather like an Italian mojito and it was very good. I think the rum was something gold and not really dark but I was surprised that the drink was not really, really sweet with the tonic and all. It was refreshing and I enjoyed the herbal flavors from the Averna and the chartreuse. (I don’t presently have Averna and chartreuse in my bar and I’m feeling like I should). I would order this cocktail again.

In addition to the tasty rum libations I consumed this weekend, I also enjoyed a few Bloody Marys at Cypress Street Pint & Plate and they were lovely and delicious.

That’s all for this week. There’s another batch of ginger beer brewing and I hope to get into that Brinley’s coffee rum soon. And, I’m going to a rum tasting at Tower on Wednesday so I’ll be sure and update about that. Ciao!